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On Arms Treaty, White House Seeks a Republican’s Ear

Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona wants a nuclear modernization program in return for his support of a new treaty with Russia.Credit
Alex Brandon/Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The White House might as well install a red-telephone hot line in Senator Jon Kyl’s house.

President Obama called last week. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. phoned this week. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates have been on the line. Other officials dispensed with the phone to fly to Arizona to talk in person.

Suffice it to say, Mr. Kyl has the attention of the Oval Office these days. More than any other Republican in Congress, Mr. Kyl has become the target of administration energy as it seeks to persuade him to support a new arms control treaty with Russia — or figure out how to circumvent him if he does not. “They are much more focused now,” Mr. Kyl said in an interview.

Rarely has a single member of the minority party become so crucial to a president’s top foreign policy priority. By most accounts, Mr. Kyl, a burly, sober-minded lawyer and frustrated would-be scientist who has made himself into a nuclear expert, holds the key to whether the so-called New Start treaty will be approved this year as the president has demanded.

Mr. Kyl has played close to the vest since a statement last week declaring there was not enough time to consider the treaty in the lame-duck session of Congress. In his first interview since then, Mr. Kyl credited the administration with meeting many of his concerns, but said he was still not sure he could trust it to follow through.

He did not rule out a vote this year, but set conditions that might be hard for the administration to meet, including a long floor debate. “If they try to jam us, if they try to bring this up the week before Christmas, it’ll be defeated,” he said. “If they allow plenty of time for it, and I think it will take two weeks, then it’s a different matter.”

The attention represents a turnabout of sorts for Mr. Kyl, who has been overshadowed for years by his Arizona colleague, John McCain. A Nebraska native who moved to Arizona for college and law school, Mr. Kyl first won a House seat in 1986 and was elected to the Senate in 1994.

He has been a Senate workhorse and earned his way up to Republican whip, while compiling a more conservative voting record than all but four other senators, according to the American Conservative Union. By dint of his interest in nuclear issues, his caucus has deferred to his judgment on the New Start treaty and the nuclear modernization program he wants as a trade-off.

“He’s made it a passion of his, so when he talks, we listen,” said Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee. “That doesn’t mean he persuades everybody. But he certainly has the attention of his Republican colleagues.”

The White House has been careful to treat him with respect. When some treaty advocates at a Nixon Center forum accused Mr. Kyl of playing politics, Gary Samore, the top White House arms control official, defended him, saying the senator was a “great American” who genuinely cared about the issue. At a news conference where he warned against partisanship, Mr. Obama exempted Mr. Kyl. “I believe that Senator Kyl wants a safe and secure America, just like I do, and is well motivated,” Mr. Obama said.

Privately, administration officials expressed anger and bewilderment at Mr. Kyl, contending that they had given him virtually everything he had sought. Arms control advocates have been more vocal. “My conclusion is he’s acting in bad faith,” said Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association. “He asked for more earlier in the fall and they have delivered.”

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Mr. Kyl became interested in nuclear issues decades ago when one of his best college friends became a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. “It was always just fascinating to me,” Mr. Kyl said. “I’m an amateur scientist — I’m no good at it, but I’ve always been very interested.”

In Congress, he delved into arms control and made himself a resource for fellow Republicans. In 1997, he voted against the Chemical Weapons Convention. Two years later, President Bill Clinton wanted the Senate to approve the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Senator Byron L. Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, vowed to “plant myself on the floor like a potted plant” until the Republican majority allowed a vote.

Mr. Clinton and Mr. Dorgan underestimated Mr. Kyl, who had quietly rounded up votes against the treaty. Republicans called Mr. Dorgan’s bluff, brought the treaty to a vote and defeated it decisively, with just 48 senators supporting it, far from the 67 required. It was the first time since the Treaty of Versailles in 1920 that the Senate had formally rejected a major international security treaty.

“They played on people’s insecurities and they were able to get a pretty big vote,” Mr. Dorgan said in an interview. Mr. Dorgan said that he liked Mr. Kyl personally and that he must be taken seriously. “He’s very smart and very relentless and determined,” Mr. Dorgan said.

Underlying Mr. Kyl’s views is a deep skepticism of Mr. Obama’s goal of eventually ridding the world of nuclear weapons, which he termed “not realistic, not achievable and not wise.” He expressed concern that the New Start treaty would constrain missile defense and long-range conventional missiles, concerns the White House and Pentagon call unfounded.

Mr. Kyl finds unpersuasive Mr. Obama’s warnings that defeating the treaty would undercut the warming relationship with Russia while preventing nuclear inspections, calling it a conflicting argument since it presumes Russia is a partner and untrustworthy at the same time. Passing a nuclear treaty to secure cooperation on other issues is “wrongheaded and foolish,” he said.

His priority, though, has been modernizing nuclear facilities at Los Alamos and elsewhere. The administration committed $80 billion over 10 years, but Mr. Kyl said most was not new money. After feeling “essentially stonewalled” for months, the senator said the administration became more serious after Labor Day. This month, it increased the plan to at least $85 billion.

Mr. Kyl expressed satisfaction. “We’ve probably got all we’re going to get out of them in terms of dollar commitments,” he said.

But he listed other concerns, including timing of construction and the composition of forces. “I’ve come to the conclusion that the administration is intellectually committed to modernization now. No sane person could not reach that conclusion,” he said. “Whether they’re committed in the heart is another matter. Suppose Start is ratified, and they no longer have to worry about that? Will they continue to press for the money?”

The White House says yes, and will keep calling in hopes of convincing him.

A version of this article appears in print on November 26, 2010, on Page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: On Arms Treaty, White House Seeks a Republican’s Ear. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe